Friday 8 May 2015

Shanty Dwellers and Walled Cities

The Universe of S.D.Z.A. has a "darker" side - Dino-Hunts and Carrion bashing is fun and all, but there's a sad side to the whole story - and it revolves around the Shanty Dwellers that live around the Walled City-States.

The Shanty towns around the walled Cities are bohemian bustling affairs, some are static - they pick a safe and secure section of wall, usually by a main gate - as they have more security on the walls. Others are made up of Caravans and Wagons, usually pulled by hand or horses - and the move around the City Walls, not only to avoid Dinosaur Attacks but to avoid bad Weather as well.

The survive by trading and hunting, small Dino's provide meat - of course that involves going out into the Barrens, and many don't return from such hunting trips. Those living in the static Shanty Towns often grow food, small patches of fruit and vegetables growing around these towns are a common site. Along with pens for Goats, Pigs, and Chickens.

Life is hard, and these Shanty Dwellers dream of being accepted inside the walls of the City. Once a year, most Cities hold a lottery. Hundreds and Hundreds of Shanty Dwellers congregate near a main gate. Tickets are given out, and a hundred (more in some cases) People win the right to move into the City - what those outside don't realize is the winners spend three years as indentured servants to the City, working in the Reclamation Plant, the Hydroponic Farms, Sewage Treatment Services etc. Life is hard, some even die if they are older or their health isn't up to it. Af those three years they are given a place of their own (they are housed in Barracks whilst indentured) to live and a Job fitting to their intelligence and level of training. On average around a 25 out of 100 achieve this, some die natural deaths, others die because of accidents in the work place - as you can imagine, work safety isn't a priority for these "expendables" and as most "City States" as they refer to themselves operate on an almost feudal system of government, as you can imagine - the regular population have little or no rights.

There are exceptions to this, in the UK both South Wales and Scotland sealed off their borders - Scotland was the first to do so, they quickly reacted to the World situation. South Wales was pretty fast off the mark, when they erected Electrified Fencing as North Wales started to fall. Both South Wales and Scotland take in refugees regularly - after stringent medial checks have been made.

London is the only walled City in the World that's trying to expand, they take refugees every month - who work as part of the construction team. A new Section of wall is build AROUND the outer wall, the old inner wall is then torn down and recycled - turned into rubble to be used as filler for the Concrete for a future wall section, or used to build new housing for the refugees taken in. Building has moved underground, expanding old sewer systems and disused underground tunnels - and turning them into Hydroponic Gardens, there's even grazing land down there for Cattle and other Food Animals. All waste is recycled, and used as Fertilizer, Animal Feed, or turned into Methane for fuel. Nothing is wasted.


No comments:

Post a Comment